Reel damper control



March 14, 1961 H. M. RYBOLD EIAL 2,974,582

REEL DAMPER CONTROL Filed Feb. 12, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. '2

IN VEN TOR.

HENRY M. RYBOLD OSWALD \J- W\GG\N$ ATTORN EYE March 14, 1961 H. M. RYBOLD ETAL 2,974,582 REEL DAMPER CONTROL Filed Feb. 12, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

HENRY M. RYBOLD oswmu u. wvsc-n NS fj vw ATTORNEYS United States PatntO REEL DAMPER CONTROL Henry 'M. Rybold and Oswald J. Wiggins, La Crosse, Wis., assignors to The Trane Company, La Crosse, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Filed Feb. 12, 1958, Ser. No. 714,918

Claims. (Cl. 98-106) This invention relates to wall and baseboard radiators commonly termed convectors and to the control of the j is inexpensive to manufacture, easy to assemble, readily accessible for repair, and conveniently located for use by the consumer.

A third object of the invention is to provide a pivoted 1 air damper above the heat exchangemember of a convector which is operated remotely by a reel control accessible to the consumer thru the front plate of the convector.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel reel damper control to raise and lower a damper men1- ber pivotally secured above the heat exchange member of a wall or baseboard convector.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be clearly apparent as the specification proceeds to describe the inventionwith reference to the accompanying drawings in which- Fig. Us a front elevation View of a conventional convector with part of the casing broken away to show the location of the damper and damper control.

Fig. 2 is a medial sectional view of the reel damper control mechanism as viewed from the left of the damper control knob.

Fig. 3 is a medial sectional view of the reel damper control mechanism as viewed from the right of the damper control knob.

Fig. 4 is a partial sectional view on line 4-4 of Fig. 3 showing the damper control knob and supporting means therefor.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 10 denotes a conventional convector unit which includes a top panel 12., a back panel 14, side panels 16, and a front panel 18 with air outlets 20 therein, and with a conventional heat exchange unit 22 suported near the floor line in the lower half of the convector 10. Damper member 24 is pivotally secured at the rear edge of the convector 10 immediately above the heat exchange unit 22 by means of a rod member 26 welded or otherwise secured to the back edge of the damper 24. Said rod member- 26 extends into an apertured flange member 28 which is secured above the heat exchange unit 22 in a cut out portion 30 of the damper member 24.- The damper 24 is raised and lowered to increase or decrease the air flow over the heat exchange unit 22 by means of a bead chain 32 secured in a key slot 34 or in any other suitable manner to the front edge of the damper 24. The other end of the bead chain 32 is secured in the damper control knob 36 by insertion of one of the beads of the bead chain 32 into an aperture 38 provided in the damper control knob 36 or by any other conventional method.

.r 2,974,582 Patented Mar. 14, 1961 Damper control knob 36 supported in slot 40 in the front panel 18 of the convector is secured to a knob support plate 42 by means of a bolt 44 inserted thru both members and fastened by a nut 46. Out turned flanges 47 and 48 on the knob support plate 42 are welded or otherwise secured to the top panel 12 and back panel 18 to rigidly support both the knob support plate 42 and the damper control knob 36.

The operation of the damper control mechanism will now be described. When the operator desires to raise the damper 24 to allow air to circulate past the heat exchange unit 22 and out the air outlets 20 to warm a room, damper control knob 36 is rotated from top to bottom in the direction of the arrows and bead chain 32 is thereby wound upon drum 50 of the control knob thereby raising damper 24. Spring washer 52 bears against washer 53 which in turn forces bearing surface 54 of the damper control knob 36 towards the knob support plate 42 to constitute a friction retaining lock to secure the damper in a multiplicity of desired positions. In other words, when the damper is raised and lowered the force exerted by the spring washer 52 is greater than the gravitational force of the damper so it necessarily follows that the damper 24 will be held in any position in which it is placed by the damper control knob 36.

To facilitate ease of operation and to constitute a stop for the damper 24 in the extreme positions, a ball bearing 56 is provided between the damper control knob 36 and the knob support plate 42. Upon rotation of the damper control knob, the ball bearing 56 rides in the spiral groove 58 in the bearing surface 54 of the damper knob 36 and moves longitudinally in the round end slot 60 in the knob support plate 42. The rounded ends 62 and 64 of spiral groove 58 constitute stop positions which limit the extreme positions of the damper. Rounded end 62 is the stop for the closed damper position and the rounded end 64 is the stop for the maximum open position. The inner edge of slot 60 is curved outwardly away from the bearing surface 54 to provide a smooth rolling surface in the longitudinal direction. As can readily be seen, the ball bearing 56 moves in a longitudinal direction normal to the axis of bolt 44 as the damper control knob is rotated from the damper closed position to the damper open. position and vice versa. The spiral groove 64 translates the rotary motion of the damper control into a linear motion of the ball bearing since the major axis of the round end slot 60 is in a plane normal to the axis of the bolt 44. It should be noted that the length of spiral groove 58 is such that the damper knob 36 has to rotate through an angle greater than 360 to go from the closed position to the open position and vice versa. The length of the spiral groove will be expressed in degrees of angle subtended by said spiral groove. Therefore, the arc length of spiral groove 58 is greater than 360. It can readily be seen that a knob with a spiral groove of less than 360 would have to be larger in diameter to allow the ball bearing 56 to travel the same spiral length in order to raise the damper the same vertical distance as that accomplished by the disclosed spiral groove 58.

As herein described, we have provided a novel and easily adjusted reel damper control which provides ease of operation, a minimum of moving parts, and simultaneous selection and locking of a convector damper.

Although we have described in'detail the preferred embodiment of our invention, we contemplate that many changes may be made without departing from the scope or spirit of our invention, and we desire to be limited only by the claims.

We claim:

1. The combination of a pivoted damper for a radiator and damper control means port means adapted to be secured to a radiator casing, a damper knob rotatably connected to said support means, means operably associated With said damper knob to urge said damper knob into frictional engagement with said support means, said damper knob having a surface bearing on said support means, said surface having a spiral groove therein, said spiral groove having an arc length greater than 360, said, support means having an elongated slot therein with the major axis of the slot being in a plane normal to the axis of said damper knob, a flexible connecting means connecting said damper to said damper knob, and a rotating means located in said spiral groove and in said elongated slot whereby said rotating means will move in a plane normal to the axis of said damper knob when said damper knob is rotated through an angle greater than 360 to raise or lower said damper.

2. The structure of claim 1 wherein said rotating means is a ball bearing.

3. The combination of a pivoted damper for a radiator and damper control means for raising and lowering said pivoted damper, said control means comprising support means adapted to be secured to a radiator casing, a

damper knob rotatably connected to said support means, means operably associated with said damper knob to urge said damper knob into frictional engagement with said support means said damper knob having a mlrface bearing on said support means, said surface having a spiral groove therein, said support means having an elongated slot therein with the major axis of the slot for raising and lowering said pivoted damper, said control means comprising sup- 7 being in a plane normal to the axis of said damper knob,

a flexible connecting means connecting said damper to said damper knob, and a rotating means located in said spiral groove and in said elongated slot whereby said rotating means will move in a plane normal to the axis of said damper knob when said damper knob is rotated to raise or lower said damper.

4. The structure of claim 3 wherein said rotating means is a ball bearing.

5. The combination of a pivoted damper for a radiator, and damper control means for raising and lowering said pivoted damper, said damper control means comprising support means adapted to be attached to a radiator casing, a damper knob rotatably supported by and adjacent to said support means, means operably associated with said damper knob to urge said damper knob into frictional engagement with said support means a flexible connecting means secured to said damper at one. end and connected to said damper knob at the other end, and ball bearing means freely supported between said support means and said damper knob whereby said damper knob :may be readily rotated to raise or lower said damper.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 465,993 Geddes Dec. 29, 1891 829,070 Hansen Aug. 21, 1906 1,830,327 Modine Nov. 3, 1931 2,516,358 Young July 25, 1950 2,660,945 Osterkorn Dec. 1, 1953 2,740,348 Griner Apr. 3, 1956 

